Quest for the Question
by Candyland
Summary: [COMPLETE] Shinichi, Heiji, and Kaito. These boys can't do anything like normal people, can they? Not even pop The Question...
1. Bunny Ears and Easter Eggs

**AN: **Scary things happen when I read weird articles. See, I read this article about weird ways to propose, and of course my mind just starts going a mile a minute, and I had to do it. It just seemed like too good of an idea to pass up. Totally plunnie here (plot-bunny, for those who don't know), but so much fun!

This will be a three-part fic, in all probability. And I've seen a good plenty of 'Shinichi proposes to Ran' fics. But I'm trying to put a little bit of a spin on the typical. Let's see how it goes. Please enjoy! Aoyama-sensei owns this stupendiferous series—I don't. Blaaaaaah…

Just to clarify—Shinichi's back to himself. Doesn't matter how or when or whatever, but he's himself. Maybe he ate some weird cheese and it turned him back or something. Yeah, that's it. But either way, he and Ran are on, ahem, good terms. Yay fun. Off we go.

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**Part I: Bunny Ears and Easter Eggs**

Ran's eyes drifted down to her hand on the tabletop.

Nope, her ring finger was still alarmingly bare.

Sighing, she raised said hand and put her chin in her palm. No, she wasn't frustrated at all…

Okay, that was a lie. She was getting irritated.

She remembered the day she had gotten her Shinichi back—for good. No more of those mysterious phone calls, where he was always so vague about where he was and what he was doing. No repeats of that night when he had taken her out, and then had to abandon her there, leaving her with Conan.

In other words, he'd abandoned her, leaving _himself_ behind to comfort her and keep her company.

Oh, she had been angry when she'd found out—furious. Heartbroken. Suicidal. Well, okay, maybe not, but there had been some extreme emotions, and more than a few walls, as well as her father, had fallen victim to her rage, depression, and killer right hook.

But she and Shinichi had finally talked things out after a week of anger on her part. It wasn't so much her choice—or his, for that matter. Sonoko had joined forces with Kisaki Eri to lock the two in a room together with explicit instructions to talk things over and then kiss and make up. Well, after half an hour of being trapped with the man she loved and loathed, she finally caved in and let him explain. She then let him plead and grovel for a while.

Then he had suddenly changed his tactic, taking her completely by surprise; they had talked things out, more or less, so why not just follow the next step in Eri's instructions? To hell with shyness. That had been their first kiss…and their second…and then a reeeeeeeeeally long third one…and by that point, neither of them could quite remember what the third step of Eri's orders had been. Make up…or make out?

Didn't matter, really. Sonoko had opened the door midway through kiss number four, and screamed it for the whole town to hear that Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran were officially off the market and not available for individual sale.

No one was surprised.

That had been a good four years ago, when they were eighteen years old. And they had been together ever since. But now that they were both twenty-two going on twenty-three, done with college, and cheerfully on their own, Ran was starting to cast wistful glances at a certain finger on her left hand…

No, not that finger, the one beside it.

But Shinichi wasn't taking hints, it seemed. She had seen a profound change in her best friend once he had been changed back to himself—he was more patient. He thought things through a lot more carefully before doing them. And while he still ran off to solve mysteries at the drop of a hat, he seemed far more wary of shady individuals. But there were other things that had changed about him, more subtle things that she was hard-put to describe with words.

But other aspects hadn't changed a whit. They still had that give-and-take relationship, really. He would 'give' her a hard time, and then he would 'take' the right hook to the jaw. He still teased her mercilessly, consoled her when she was upset, and babbled about Sherlock Holmes at the drop of a hat.

But no ring. He was still clueless…

At the moment, she was sitting in her parents' kitchen, having come over earlier that morning, both to visit her mother and father, and to escape from her own apartment for a while. So here she was, sitting at the table, sipping tea and watching her parents argue over something in the newspaper.

A knock on the door stirred her from her dream of diamonds on her left hand, and she pushed away from table to go answer it. "Tell 'em we don't want any!" Kogoro yelled after her.

Ignoring her father's rudeness, she opened the door with a welcoming smile—

—and her smile immediately erupted into laughter. "Oh…my…GOD, Shinichi…"

Smiling slyly, Kudo Shinichi waited patiently for his girlfriend's chuckles to subside. But he'd given her good reason to laugh, after all; it was his appearance. He was wearing jeans, a plain blue T-shirt, and a black zip-up hoodie; in one hand he held a small bouquet of daisies, in the other a little pink basket, and on his head was a headband with a pair of bright pink bunny ears sticking up off of it.

"You weren't home, so I figured you would be here. I was right!" he crowed proudly; he then shut up for the duration of her giggles, waiting patiently for her to stop. It took a while.

"What's with the ears?" Ran asked about two minutes later, when she had finally gotten herself back under some semblance of control and had finally invited him in. She was still giggling, though, but she did cheerfully accept the flowers. He was so thoughtful sometimes…

He dropped onto the end of the couch. "It's Easter, and I've got a little surprise for you."

"Easter?" she looked at him quizzically, noting (not for the first time) that he was a very good-looking young man, even with that ridiculous thing on his head. The physical changes that had occurred between eighteen and twenty-two were far more subtle than, say, changing from a child to an adult, but either way, he had a smile that made far stronger women then herself swoon. Shrugging off the thoughts, she focused on his explanation.

"It's a religious holiday," he said, giving her that lopsided grin that never ceased to make her melt into a little Ran-puddle on the floor. The bunny ears didn't hurt, either. "Aside from the religious festivities, there's some fun stuff that goes on. People color hard-boiled eggs, or sometimes they use plastic eggs instead, and put candy and stuff inside them. They hide them all over the place, and then go on Easter egg hunts to find all the eggs."

It clicked. For reasons she didn't question, she somehow knew _exactly_ what he had in mind for her today. "So you want me to go running around looking for eggs?" she looked at him incredulously.

"Yup! I set up an Easter egg hunt at my house, just for you!" he beamed at her, jumping to his feet and holding out the basket expectantly. "Here—you can put the eggs you find in this. Now let's go!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door.

"This seems awfully childish," she protested, though there wasn't much force behind it.

"I know—but it's still fun!"

Ran barely had a chance to call to her parents that she was leaving before the door closed behind her. She didn't hear her father mumbling, nor did she see her mother's knowing smile.

o

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Ran stood in the middle of the library, gawking in amazement at her longtime best friend-now-boyfriend. "Shinichi…this is crazy. You do realize that, don't you?"

He was still wearing those confounded bunny ears, perched on the desk, grinning from ear to ear. "Awww, come on, Ran! It's fun!" His eyes narrowed the tiniest bit, and she knew he was going to goad her into it with the next words out of his mouth. Sure enough, "But if you don't think you can do it…"

She opened her mouth, but shut it quickly. She had just lost, and she knew it. "Fine. I'll play your game." One hand swung down and picked up the obnoxiously pink basket from the floor by her feet.

"Great!" he cheered. "There are twenty-five eggs hidden in the house. Some of them are dyed, hard-boiled eggs, and some of them are plastic eggs with stuff inside, but you can't look at what's inside them until you get all twenty-five of them. When you find them all, you'll get a prize, just a special little treat from me to you. There's no time limit, and they can be anywhere in the house, so leave no stone, book, or piece of furniture unturned!" He paused. "Of course, I would also appreciate it if you didn't go upending all my furniture, too…"

"Okay. I'll start in here, then," she said, now somewhat warily. Was he up to something?

Obviously. This was Shinichi, after all.

"I'll just hang out in here until you're done. I know where all of them are. Twenty-five eggs, Ran," he actually giggled, and for a split second, she would have easily mistaken him for Conan. But she pushed it aside and started poking around the room, feeling more than a little ridiculous. She could sense Shinichi's eyes on her as she moved around the room in search of the elusive eggs.

And he kept giggling and fidgeting. That meant he was nervous. But about what…?

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It was harder than she thought it would be, she admitted to herself. She'd all but torn the library apart (all while ignoring Shinichi's light laughter), and found three eggs. She really wondered what was up, though. They were well hidden—she'd had to climb all the way up to the top shelf for one of them.

She ducked throughout the various rooms of the house, finding eggs in some of the most bizarre locations—inside the dryer, hidden inside a teacup in a kitchen cupboard, slipped inside an empty video sleeve…the list went on and on. He had really put a lot of thought into this, Ran reflected again, as she pulled the one brightly colored egg from where it was sitting innocently amidst all the other normal eggs on the rack in the refrigerator.

She stopped in the hallway and did a quick count of her basket. Twenty-three. She was close. A glance at her watch proved that she had been searching for over an hour. Damn Shinichi…he was still sitting in the library, she knew from walking by earlier. He was sprawled in a large chair, his nose buried in some book—if she could guess, she would probably hazard that it was a Sherlock Holmes novel.

Why would he put her through this?

Sighing, she hoisted her basket and resumed the hunt.

Egg number twenty-four was found in the bathroom, and finding it was quite a trick. She had bumped into the vanity, and heard something rattle. Suspicious, she had conducted a search, and found it in the toothbrush holder—the top lifted off, and there it was, sitting there innocently, waiting to be found.

Scooping it up, she smirked to herself. Twenty-four down, one to go.

And the search continued. In spite of herself, Ran did have to admit that she was sort of enjoying the chase. She was having to think pretty damn hard to figure out all the possible hiding places in the house, all billion and a half of them. And to find all but one of the eggs in the amount of time she had was something that made her proud. She'd show her mystery-geek boyfriend that she was just as good as him when push came to shove.

Unfortunately, the elusive final egg didn't seem very eager to present itself to her. She searched all over the place, but saw no trace of a brightly colored plastic egg, or the more pastel shade of a dyed hard-boiled egg. Twenty minutes later, she was getting frustrated, and the phrase _needle in a haystack_ was running rampant across her mind.

Finally, she stomped back to the library. Shinichi set his book down at her entrance and beamed at her. "Well, did you find them all?" His voice trailed off a little at the look on her face.

"I have twenty-four. Number twenty-five seems to be eluding me today," she huffed.

He actually looked sympathetic. "Maybe you just missed it?" he suggested softly.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" she jibed.

"Well, like I said, it could be anywhere in the house," he smiled sweetly.

"You're not helping…" Ran groaned, letting her head fall back and her eyes roll up towards the heavens as though to ask _Why_ It was then that she noticed something odd. A hint of color, just above her. Something bright orange.

Her eyes widened. No way…

How the hell did he get that up on the bloody ceiling fan?

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Five minutes, a little bit of improvisation, and a lot of laughter on Shinichi's part later (he offered his help, but she flat-out refused it, so he just watched and chuckled at her efforts), the twenty-fifth egg was clutched possessively in Ran's hot little hands. She dropped it into the basket, and laughed triumphantly. "Ha, ha, and again I say, ha. I have them all. Now," she folded her arms, "would you mind telling me what this is all about, Shinichi?"

"What makes you think anything's up?"

"I know you better than that."

Again with that enigmatic smile of his—she was getting dangerously close to taking a swing at him. "All right, you're right. Now we get to play a game, Ran!" At her glare, he picked up the basket and tipped it, sending the eggs spilling out onto the desk in a small heap. "Take a closer look at the eggs."

Giving him a Look, she obliged. She hadn't really looked at the eggs as she'd been chucking them into her basket, so she was a little startled to realize that there were words painted on all of the eggs. She picked one up and looked at it. The word _Squeeze_ was written across the red plastic surface in blue paint. One eyebrow quirked at her boyfriend, who managed to look fairly innocent.

"Now take the words on the eggs and make a sentence!" he teased.

Ran was irritated, but at the same time, she was incredibly curious. There was something going on here that she was definitely missing, and her insatiable need to know wouldn't let her back out. Besides, he really wanted her to play along—and he had said that if she could figure out the puzzle, she would get a prize. That was it, then—she was going to finish if it killed her, just to see what the end result was.

If it was something stupid, she would bop him. 'Nuff said.

So she set about digging through the twenty-five seemingly-random words. But after a minute, she found one that said _You_ Something clicked, and she continued looking with a little more purpose. Before long, she almost had a complete sentence, missing one word. _Will you…me._

And every other word seemed to fit into it, though it didn't make sense, per se.

Shinichi was perched on the edge of the desk, looking more and more antsy with each new word she tried. At one point, she turned and gave him her patented 'my boyfriend is a moron' look. "Will I kick you? Is that an invitation?" He actually managed to look innocent.

She paused and took a good look at the three eggs she had assembled already in a sentence. Will you…me. Will you…me. The phrase looked incredibly suspicious, but no way…Shinichi had never really been the kind of guy to put that much thought into something like this…though, over the four years of their quote-unquote "official" relationship, he had surprised her at more turns than she cared to count, sometimes with something incredibly romantic.

She remembered her twenty-first birthday as one such occasion—not necessarily romantic, but definitely something surprising, and definitely NOT something she had expected from Shinichi.

Actually, scratch that. She remembered _part_ of her twenty-first birthday, anyway—she remembered going out to dinner, and then…she wasn't one hundred percent sure. They were college kids, after all, and while nothing wholly inappropriate had happened (they were pretty sure, at least), they had woken up the next morning tangled together in each others' arms amidst the jumbled sheets on Ran's bed in her dorm room, clothing askew and war drums pounding inside their skulls.

It was a night she would never forget—or she was sure she wouldn't have forgotten it if she hadn't had one too many Purple Rains…damn things were addictive, _and_ had a decent proof to boot. But back to the puzzle at hand.

She stared at the dozen or so eggs she still hadn't tried. Her eyes instantly moved to the bright orange one—elusive number twenty-five, the only egg that color in the entire pile. It stood out like a sore thumb against the pastel dyes.

Going on gut, she chose that one and looked at the blue-painted word written on it. Her eyes widened as her hunch was validated. With slightly trembling hands, she set it in line with the other three to finish a sentence written in Easter eggs.

_Will you marry me?_

"Open the orange one," Shinichi instructed her softly. Her hands were shaking a lot more as she obeyed, and cracked open the day-glo egg marked with the word _Marry_, tipping the contents out into her waiting palm. She shouldn't have been surprised, but she still was, when a ring slid into her hand. A tiny gold band, with a single perfect diamond set into it.

Her breath hitched; the plastic egg fell out of her shaky fingers, making a hollow sound as it bounced on the ground beside her chair, and her now-empty hand moved to cover her mouth. Slowly, she turned to look at Shinichi…

…who had slid from his perch on the edge of the desk, and was now down on one knee beside her chair. The confident smirk he'd worn for most of the game was gone, replaced a shy, hesitant smile that would have seemed more at home on Conan's face than on his. "Ran…there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now." A faint pink color touched his cheeks as he reached out and clasped his hands around both of hers, trapping the ring between her palms. "Ran…will you marry me?"

Against her will, tears swam into Ran's eyes, blurring the magical moment. She tried to speak, but her voice wasn't cooperating. At a loss for what else to do, she just bobbed her head up and down in a nod, shaking the first few tears loose to run down her face.

His hands separated hers and took the ring; gentle fingers slid the diamond onto the appropriate finger. Those selfsame fingers then slid up her arms and over her shoulders to her face, where they brushed away the few tiny drops that had escaped from her eyes. And those fingers cupped her chin while he kissed her, allowing there to be no mistaking his feelings.

When they broke apart, Ran looked at him, her eyes sparkling with happiness and love…and then she giggled, though she tried desperately not to. "I don't suppose you'd wear those to the wedding, would you? They really look good on you…"

Shinichi clapped one hand possessively to his head. "Leave the ears out of this!"

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**AN: **Ah, bunny ears. The image of Shinichi in pink bunny ears just amuses me for some reason.

I just don't know if the Aoyama boys (Shinichi, Heiji, and Kaito), being the unusual people that they are, would propose to their respective lady-loves in any typical manner. It just doesn't seem like their style. **And yes, I know all about the restaurant and Shinichi's parents and stuff. **I just thought this was more fun. My little tribute to National Make Single People Feel Like Shit Day…err, Valentine's Day. Hope you enjoyed it, next part will hopefully be up in short order.

**Up next: **Part II: The Hangman's Noose (any guesses?)


	2. The Hangman's Noose

**AN: **Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. And I hadn't even thought of it—it's a plot bunny fic, and Shinichi was wearing bunny ears. Also, about the '_o_' that I use for dividers—sorry if they were distracting or anything…but for some reason, this site doesn't like my asterisks and squiggly lines anymore.

Anyhoo, onto chapter two. A couple people guessed it—this is the Heiji and Kazuha chapter. And again, I seriously don't think the guys would do things normally, so poor Kazuha's in for a shock, ain't she? Fair warning—I can't write vernacular to save my soul, so the dialogue isn't going to have any colorful spelling or anything. And the title isn't quite what you think it is. These characters all belong to Aoyama-sensei. I are just borrowing them for fun and giggles.

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**Part II: The Hangman's Noose**

To say it was raining would definitely count as an understatement. Saying it was raining was like saying that fish liked to swim, or that Kudo Shinichi was a good detective, or that Mouri Ran could hit things, or that Hattori Heiji was a good-looking guy…well, that last was Kazuha's opinion, at least.

She didn't usually say that out loud (after all, it was fairly common knowledge), unless she wanted to watch him turn red and start stuttering. He was the easiest person in the world to fluster if one knew how, and no one (save possibly for Kudo) knew better than Toyama Kazuha how to push Heiji's buttons. Even after all their years together, it was still so simple to throw the poor guy off-balance.

She also knew something that even the Osakan detective didn't even seem to realize at times: for as intelligent as he was, Hattori Heiji could be so incredibly _clueless_ when push came to shove. Case in point, his feelings towards her.

They had been friends for so long—since childhood. But somewhere along the line, there had been a very subtle change in their relationship. It was so subtle that even both parties involved seemed to have missed it. But at some point, she had realized that he was looking at her differently, being a little more overprotective, and definitely sending Evil-Heiji-Glares-of-Death™ at any male of appropriate age who happened to give her that second look (she supposed that Heiji hadn't realized she had seen him making grown men cry with that kind of Look).

And there was also that one night—they had been walking together in the park when she had suddenly found her fingers enveloped in a certain someone else's slightly-larger hand. Said someone else had been looking everywhere but at her, and blushing brightly enough to light up the dusk of evening, but he had been smiling.

OR there was the time when they were in high school and another guy (a senior, no less!) had verbally expressed an interest in the charming Toyama Kazuha (as he put it). She still wasn't _exactly_ sure what had transpired between Kenji-kun and Heiji, but…well, the rumor mill had told a few interesting stories concerning fist-fights, lots and lots of creative swearing, and several live animals.

Somewhere along the line, they had become a couple without either of them saying a single actual word to that effect. It just kind of…happened. Neither missed it. But as shy (and clueless) as he was concerning romance, she'd finally had to bite the bullet and take a chance herself, catching him off-guard on the school roof. That had been their first kiss, on Valentine's Day, their final year of high school.

He had not protested overly much. After getting over the initial shock—and returning the favor with enthusiasm—he had spent the rest of the day stammering and alternating between grinning like an idiot and blushing to the point of spontaneous combustion. But he still had trouble coming out and saying exactly how he felt; he preferred more to let actions speak louder than words. But the words, Kazuha reflected, were so nice to hear…

Kazuha knew he loved her. He had actually voiced it himself, at the police department's New Year's party. They were both the children of officers, and he was a detective to boot, so naturally both had warranted invitations. But the point was that she had gotten him to admit that he loved—he actually used the word _loved_!—her out loud!

…once.

…_very_ loudly.

…after he had insisted that one more of those tasty little drinks wouldn't hurt him.

…_and_ after insisting that no, he was not drunk, thank you fairy—_very_ much.

…and _before_ getting chewed out by his father for a lack of restraint concerning the open bar.

…_and_ beforehe had pretty much passed out in the doorway of his apartment after the party, leaving Kazuha (only slightly less inebriated) to drag him to the couch. She opted for the couch rather than the bed for a simple reason—it was closer. She had then been blessed with an awesome opportunity to watch him sleeping, curled up like a baby.

Granted, it would have been nicer had there been only one of him instead of that strange identical twin he had miraculously acquired in front of her vision…but on the other hand, two of Heiji…if she could have only figured out which one was actually him…

Shaking her head to clear it of thoughts that could potentially be slightly ecchi at best and downright unprintable at worst, Kazuha refocused on the rain. It was pounding against the apartment's windows, as though—and she snickered at her own metaphor—it was trying to get inside and out of the storm. But she took comfort in its consistency, sipping at tea that had long since gone lukewarm.

After being together for as long as they had been, Kazuha's mind was starting to think about…other things. Things involving rings on a certain finger of the left hand. Not that she would voice that to him, of course; other people were doing it for her. It seemed like everyone had joined together with a plan to drag them to the altar, will you or nil you.

And yet he seemed to remain oblivious.

It was several minutes later that her almost-nonexistent thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Part of her wondered who in the world would be out and about in this, but some part of her knew instinctively who was on the other side of that door.

Her hunch was right—the object of her current thoughts was standing there, a shining grin splitting his face from ear to ear—soaking wet. Drenched as a fish. "Hi!" he said cheerily. "Are ya busy?"

"Heiji, are you crazy?" she huffed, trying to hide the smile that was threatening to take over her own face in response to his. "Get in here, you're going to give yourself pneumonia—hang the jacket up, don't drip water everywhere! Honestly, what were you think—ACK!" Her ramblings ended in the abrupt squeak as Heiji pulled his trademark cap off (she had never been able to get him to trade it in for a newer model)—and flicked his wrist, sending a small spray of water at her.

He grinned at her—a little sheepish. "I was bored, and I figured you'd be bored, so I thought I'd come over and keep you company." His shoes, jacket, and hat (all sopping wet) were left at the door. His jeans were damp too, but there wasn't much that could done about that (well, nothing within the realm of decency, at least). House scuffs firmly in place on feet, he followed her back to the living room, where she had been so thoughtfully regarding the rain.

Heiji dropped into a chair with comfortable familiarity, and absolutely _no_ regard for the current state of some of his clothing; Kazuha sighed and decided that damp furniture was a small price to pay for his company. "Why didn't you grab an umbrella or something?"

"Boring…" he murmured, closing his eyes and stretching. "So whatcha up to?"

"Absolutely nothing," she admitted, ignoring her now-empty tea cup. "Just watching the rain."

"I have a brilliant idea!" he announced with a flourish, magically springing back to life with a renewed energy. "Let's play a game!" At her blank stare, he wilted a little bit. "Just a thought…ya know, something to do…"

"Do you have a game in mind?" she asked, smiling internally. He was so cute when he got all sheepish like that…and besides, a game equaled something to do _and_ spending time with Heiji. Something to do equaled boredom being gone, and spending time with Heiji equally bliss. What wasn't to like?

He sprung from his chair and darted over to her desk, where he quickly retrieved a notebook and a pen. Prizes clutched possessively in his hands, he tumbled back into the chair he had claimed and flipped the notebook open to a blank page. "Remember when we were kids and we used to play Hangman?"

Kazuha couldn't keep herself from laughing. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm serious!" he protested, moving the pen across the paper. The crudely-drawn gallows had already taken form on the page, and he was now making a series of lines for a message.

_I'm dating a detective, _Kazuha thought wryly. _Even playing games has to be some kind of puzzle…_

He leaned over and held out the notebook. "Guess away!"

With a mental shrug, Kazuha obliged, and the game began.

It was easy to forget about the rain, the earlier boredom, and time itself. Message after message was unraveled, puzzle after puzzle was solved. Some were entire quotations; others a mere few words. Kazuha had to roll her eyes when one of Heiji's messages proudly blazoned out Kudo's most famous statement, regarding the number of certainties out there—in other words, there is only one truth.

The rain continued to fall without a hint of letting up. It was almost reminiscent of a childhood story—Mother Nature and Father Time. What the hell had Father Time done to piss Mother Nature off that badly that she would cry that much?

After a while, though, Kazuha felt the first niggling of suspicion growing in the back of her mind. She was the daughter of a police officer and the girlfriend of a world-class detective, so she was no stranger to critical or analytical thinking. After the first few, she began to get just a leeeeeeeeeeeettle wary.

Heiji's messages on the hangman board. They were steadily growing a little…odd. Not all of them of course, but pretty much every other message dropped into a very peculiar theme.

_Old, new, borrowed, blue._

_Here comes the bride._

_Speak now, or forever hold your peace._

_I am the monkey and you are the cheese grater._

One dark eyebrow slowly arched. Well, what in the world?

No. No way…

She wrote in the last letter of her latest puzzle (which read _Heiji is a aho_, just to get a laugh), and passed the rapidly-filling notebook back to him. He tapped the end of the pen against his chin, obviously thinking something over. She knew him well enough that he almost seemed to be wrestling with himself over something. But finally, he seemed to make up his mind, and a moment later, she was presented with a fresh page, consisting of a series of dashes followed by a question mark, and a freshly-drawn stick-gallows.

Kazuha started with the common letters, and Heiji filled them in as she called them out. "E." The last blank filled. "T." The hanging man acquired a head. "S." And a body. "R." Two more blanks filled. "N." Dead-dude grew an arm. "M." Another two blanks.

After a couple more minutes, he suddenly set the pen down and grinned. "You got it. I think you just set a new record."

She started when he stopped writing. She hadn't even been looking at the paper as she called out letters. But she managed a triumphant smirk. "A record, huh? What's my prize?" she teased.

To her amazement, his eyes met hers and squarely held her gaze as he handed her the notebook with the finished puzzle. "A prize? Well…that's up to you, I think." And he waited while she processed the completed message in her hot little hands.

First of all, she noticed that the poor condemned hanging man was one eye and a mouth away from being complete. Then she stared blankly at the letters for a minute, trying to figure out if her eyes were playing tricks on her again.

_Will you marry me?_

After subtly pinching herself to make sure she was not dreaming and blinking several times to ascertain that her eyes were, indeed, _not_ playing tricks on her, the realization hit, and her jaw dropped. Slowly, she dragged her eyes upwards from the words on the page (trying valiantly to make her heart stop doing those damn cartwheels), back up to Heiji.

Who was watching her intently, a shy little smile on his face. He had also produced something small, white, rectangular, and box-like, probably from his pocket, and was twirling it between his fingers in what she easily recognized as a very nervous habit.

"Heiji…?"

**Ker-rash** said the thunder outside. _Flash_ went the lightning.

"So…umm…" his blush deepened to a crimson color that should never be found in nature. She feared that if his face went any darker burgundy, he just might burst into flames. "H-how about it?"

Kazuha couldn't help herself. She knew the situation was serious, but she just could not stop herself from bursting out into a bad case of the giggles. "How about it?" she repeated, feeling horrible for making the poor guy fidget more than he already was—but she just couldn't stop herself.

Poor Heiji. He looked ready to either run screaming from the room, or simply die on the spot.

Squirm, squirm, _squirm_…

She got up, still giggling. "Do I have to put the ring on myself?"

_—so if I get on the plane now, I'm sure Kudo would let me hide out with him for a few days until I can go into hiding in Europe somewhere because I am the biggest aho EVER and I totally screwed up and she's gonna be so mad and I'm an idiot and—erk? What did she say? _Unknowingly, Kazuha had interrupted Heiji's extremely panicked thoughts. "…aaaah…ummm…eh?"

Kazuha laughed. "Come here already, genius!"

Really, he was so damn cute when he got all flustered-like!

Ten seconds later, the tiny diamond was sparkling on Kazuha's left hand. She regarded it with a strange sort of awe for a while, then turned her gaze slowly up to her boyfriend-now-fiancé, whose face was still a lovely scarlet shade.

"WHOO!"

Letting out a war-whoop, Kazuha pounced on him. Her hands slammed into his shoulders, pushing him down to the ground; with the element of surprise on her side, Heiji went straight down. And it was quite some time before they moved from that spot.

"Sooooo…" Heiji murmured into her hair after a moment. "…I like Hangman."

"Yeah. Bring on the noose," Kazuha giggled.

"…kinky!"

"Shut up."

_o_

_o_

_o_

**AN: **I think I established a running gag—inebriation references. They just lend themselves well to the scenes that play out in my mind. Also, I do know a couple that was like this. Friends forever, doot dee doo, turned around one day, and _BAM_, happy couple. So it does happen, and with as clueless/shy as Heiji is at times, I thought it fit them. I dunno…I write thing as they appear in my head.

But anyway, another chapter done. Only one more official chapter before this fic can be put to bed (and stop thinking those thoughts, hentai people!). There might be an omake chapter, just a plot bunny I've been entertaining for a bit. But I think you all know whose left, and trust me—our favorite Phantom Thief is incapable of doing anything even remotely predictable. Please look forward to it. Thanks for reading!

**Up next: **Part III: Beach Party!


	3. Beach Party!

**AN: **Woot-age…last official part. Yay fun, indeedy! My logic in this chapter is that I think that of the three guys, Kaito's would have to be the most outlandish, just by the nature of his character. Oh yes, and I could not help myself—there's a little omake-esque thing at the end of this chappie, just some random-age that wouldn't leave me alone. Heehee…excuse me while I giggle uncontrollably.

No ownie. Just thought it was amusing. Have fun, and eat your vegetables!

_o_

_o_

_o_

**Part III: Beach Party**

A soft click, and the world was shut away on the other side of the door.

Kuroba Kaito sighed and dropped into the chair in the room. This was, potentially, the stupidest thing he had ever done in his life. Still, there was no backing out. Phantom thieves did _not_ get cold feet.

Union rules or some such thing…

Swallowing hard, he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the small blue bottle. He stared at it in awe for several minutes, as though it was the Pandora Gem itself. Slowly, his fingers tightened around the narrow plastic bottle.

_Let's do it, _he decided, flipping the lid open and going to work.

_Twenty minutes later…_

Kaito regarded the mirror thoughtfully. After a long moment, an enormous grin split his face.

Damn, he did good work!

Now if only a certain someone thought so as well…he nodded grimly at the mirror. This would work. And, if all went according to plan (which he would, if he had anything to say about it), this would be something that a certain someone would remember for the rest of her life.

A few minutes later, he was outside on the sidewalk. The summer air was warm, and the sun was glowing brightly in the sky. It was a lovely day. Grinning to himself, Kaito's hand slid into his pocket and closed around his cellphone. A press of a button, and his call was sent.

"Aoko, it's me," he grinned when she answered. "Oh—I'm good, thanks. You? Awesome. Listen, what're you doing tomorrow?" A pause, and his smile grew even a little wider. "The weather's been great lately…you wanna go to the beach?"

_o_

_o_

There seemed to be people everywhere—children and adults, clad in swimwear and flip-flops. It was a beautiful day, sunny and hot, and the water looked absolutely divine.

"Kaito, when you have a good idea," Aoko commented, turning a big smile on her companion, "you have a _good_ idea. This looks great!" They quickly claimed a vacant spot near the water (recently vacated by two harried-looking parents and their two damp, overly-energetic children). They laid their towels out, and Aoko promptly sprawled out to sunbathe for a while.

Kaito kicked back as well, looking appropriately garish in shorts, shades, flip-flops, and the loudest Hawaiian-print shirt Aoko had ever seen; she wasn't quite sure where he had found such a thing, but she knew such colors and patterns were not found in nature.

Giving a mental shrug, she closed her eyes against the sunlight and let the warmth wash over her. They would most likely dive in later, but for right now, it seemed far more appealing to just relax. They chatted inanely back and forth a little, not really needing the conversation, but simply enjoying each other's company and the beautiful weather.

"This was a great idea…" she murmured again after about twenty minutes. She heard the _ding_ of her mental timer going off then, and rolled over to allow the other side to get its turn.

"Yeah, it was…" he mumbled back, and she had the distinct impression that he might be dozing.

Another short period of time went by, without speaking. Then Aoko decided that it was time to move. "I'm gonna swim. You coming?" she asked, getting up and standing over him.

"…sure, just a sec," he mumbled, slowly sitting up. She nodded and scampered towards the water.

The sand, however, proved extremely hot. And Aoko had left her sandals at her towel. She made it about three feet before doing a hot-foot dance back to the towel. Kaito watched with amusement. "That's a lovely dance, Aoko. What do you call it?"

Aoko automatically took a swing at him, then plopped back down on her towel. "Why does something always have to go wrong? Argh…" He patted her shoulder sympathetically; he then appeared to hesitate, then seemed to make up his mind about something.

"Hey, Aoko," he leaned over and whispered into her ear. "I want to show you something."

"What?" she asked, the tiniest hint of suspicion in her eyes. If this was a prank…

"It's a surprise, but I think you'll really like it," he said, snatching her hand and pulling her along behind him. "Come on, let's go!" He dragged her across the sand. "You'll love this!"

_o_

_o_

The waves splashed against the rocks, covering them both with a spray that was enough to leave them a bit damp, but not quite enough to soak them. It was the only sound; none of the other tourists were around, it was only the two of them and the ocean.

Aoko curled her legs under her and sat down on the wet rock, watching the waves in awe. "Kaito…this is beautiful! How did you know this was here?"

He raised one finger to his lips and grinned. "Secret."

She made a face at him before turning her gaze back to the water, and silence again fell over them. Aoko watched the waves, and Kaito watched Aoko, though he managed to be fairly discreet in doing so. But discretion—and Poker Face—pretty much went out the window when a particularly high wave hit; Aoko responded by closing her eyes and tilting her head back as the spray washed over them.

Kaito didn't have a spare thought to fight his ever-deepening blush, as he was busily trying to order his mind away from subject matters that were not entirely printable. Giving himself a shake, he decided to break the comfortable silence, knowing that she wouldn't mind.

"It's getting awfully warm out here," he commented offhandedly, almost giving the statement double meaning. Having earlier shed his loud Hawaiian print shirt, he was wearing only a white T-shirt and khaki-colored shorts. The persistent splash of the water was proving to have an interesting effect on his shirt—not that anyone really minded.

"Well, take off your shirt, baka!" Aoko admonished gently, habitually rolling her eyes while something deep down did backflips and victory dances. 'Kaito shirtless' equaled _nice_. Not that his ego needed to know that…

"…sure…" he mumbled. It was crazy, really—in his life he had jumped off skyscrapers, flown from insane heights, jumped around on balconies and turrets, impersonated almost every kind of person there was, danced in circles around the police, and still managed to escape with his prizes in hand and intact. Yet his palms started sweating at the idea of taking off his _shirt_.

Or rather, what that could potentially bring about…

Taking a deep breath, he obliged, pulling the white T-shirt off over his head (_drool_…) and dropping it to the damp rock beside him, caring little if it got any wetter. He leaned back, bracing his weight against his hands in the same posture he'd had earlier. And he waited…

"We should probably head back, it's starting to get late…Kaito?" Aoko cut herself off as she clambored back up beside him, ignoring the spray of the ocean behind her. "Kaito, you have something on your stomach." She paused, taking in the most unusual sight. "What in the world…?"

He couldn't keep the ridiculous smile from his face—ridiculously _nervous_ smile, that is.

She leaned over him, looking in open-mouthed amazement at his bronzed stomach. There, written out in what looked like tan-lines, were the words _Will you marry me? _Once it clicked, her eyes widened to approximately the size of car tires.

Aoko really wasn't sure which was more stunning—that he had actually asked her to marry him, or that he had gone so far as to temporarily tattoo his proposal on his own body via a nice tan.

When she lifted her eyes back to meet his, she was amused to see he was blushing. "I wrote it out in suntan lotion!" he explained somewhat sheepishly, though there was a definite glimmer of pride behind it. "And then I went tanning." A pause. "The ring's actually back in my bag. I didn't want it to get wet." Another pause; he started to look incredibly nervous as she didn't say anything. "Umm…surprise?"

Something broke. Aoko could not help herself. She started to laugh. Uncontrollably.

Kaito managed to keep himself still and schooled his expression to be relatively neutral, though he had the look of one who wanted nothing more than to run screaming into the sea, never to return. "Uhh…" Yup, his normal bravado was completely gone.

"…are you nuts?" Aoko finally managed to stammer out.

"I really hope not, but I think that depends on you—" he started to reply as another spray of sea-foam washed over them. He was about ready to just run, and to hell with good showmanship. But before he could finish that thought, he was cut off.

By Aoko's boisteruous squeal. "OHMIGOD!" she _lunged_, grabbing him around the waist, knocking him over, flat onto his back on the wet rock. "Yes, yes, yes, YES!" Her feet were kicking wildly in the air behind her with each word, and she was laughing her head off. "WHOO-HOOOOOO!"

Kaito felt a very slooooooooooow blush begin to work its way from the roots of his hair aaaaaaaall the way down to his toes. He also felt a very slooooooooooow, very _very_ dopey, very very _very_ LARGE grin spreading across his own face.

"Okay…if you wanna think about it…" he murmured; only the slightest lilt of a teasing tone colored the otherwise-unadulterated happiness in his voice. Of course, any further jests were cut off when Aoko proceeded to take the initiative and lay one on him, full on, right on the lips.

Neither moved for a long moment, as the white-green foam of the waves continued to wash up over them. When they finally drew apart, Aoko smiled. "How long have you been waiting to ask that?"

"A while," he admitted, then grinned rakishly. "I can remember the first time you swung a mop at my head…that was when I knew. I thought to myself, 'Kaito, you're going to marry that girl someday.' See, I'm always right!"

He half-expected a reprimand, but instead got a laugh. "Sadist…I can't believe you tanned that onto yourself…" She glanced down at the pale lines, slowly tracing out the words that had changed her life with one finger.

"But it is true—I want to marry you more than anything," he said, his usual jocular tone tempered by an unnatural seriousness. That lasted for all of that one sentence as the familiar smirk broke again. "Glad I did something as subtle as take my clothes off."

"Baka!" Aoko retorted automatically—but kissed him again.

_o_

_o_

"I can't wait to tell Dad! I bet he'll be thrilled—he really likes you, you know that?" Aoko was babbling happily, pausing every few seconds to look at the new adornment to her left hand. Her new fiance was strolling about a foot behind her. "God, I didn't think you were ever going to—" It was then that she glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Kaito was giving her an extremely odd look, and she paused; she hadn't seen that expression in quite some time. He used to get that look to him all the time when they were back in high school, right before he'd…

Oh, dear…

She realized what he was going to do a split second before he did it, but by then it was too late for her to do anything. His hand shot forward—

_FLIP!_

And _UP_ went the wrap-around she was wearing over her swimming suit. The perpetrator of this heinous act cackled loudly and scampered ahead, holding his beach towel over his head so it streamed behind him like an earthbound kite.

Aoko stared after him for a moment. Then, wishing desperately for a mop, she raised her own beach towel, brandishing it like a whip, and began the chase. "KAITO!"

_o_

_o_

_o_

**AN: **And so it ends, and so it ends. Well, almost…but before I give you one final plot-bunnie, I leave you with my thanks for your wonderful thoughts and reviews, and my sincere hopes that you enjoyed this silly little story of mine. Thanks a mil, everybody, and I hope you like the omake as well!

_o_

_o_

**Omake**

The bathroom door opened slowly, and Ran peeked around the corner; the soft light fell across her eyes, sparkling over them. She smiled gently at the sight before her, managing not to giggle.

Shinichi—her husband now, she reminded herself—was sitting in the still-made bed with his head leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed, and from her vantage point she could see that his breathing was even and steady. He looked, to all appearances, to be sound asleep.

It was incredibly adorable, really.

Still smiling to herself, Ran knelt down beside her suitcase; she was taking every precaution to be quiet, and the only sound that came from her was the slightest rustling of her long nightgown. And a moment later, a certain item was clutched possessively in her hand. Gingerly, she crept across the room, towards her unwitting prey; her eyes were still glimmering in the faint light, but it was slightly more maniacal now…she brandished her prize, raising it over his head…

Shinichi's eyes flew open as she brought it down on top of his head. He blinked owlishly at her (and she realized that yes, he _had_ been dozing off after all the stress and excitement of The Big Day); his eyebrows slowly arched towards his hairline as he realized what she had done.

"Ran…" he regarded his new bride with a dubious Look.

"Yes, sweetie?" she replied innocently, somehow managing to keep her giggles behind her teeth.

"What is it with you and the damn bunny ears?" he asked in slight exasperation as he jutted a finger at the bright pink abomination now gracing the top of his head, adorning his hair in all its fuzzy, eye-burning glory.

"They're cute!"

"…well, whatever turns your screw, dear."

"ShinIIIIIIIchi…"


End file.
